Irish Film Institute -International Film Directory – Film Listing

When Brendan Met Trudy

    • Director

      Kieron J. Walsh

    • Credits

      Producer: Lynda Myles. Writer: Roddy Collins

    • Principal Cast

      Peter McDonald, Flora Montgomery, Pauline McLynn, Don Wycherley

  • Category

    Feature

With several of his novels already adapted for film and television, Roddy Doyle here wrote directly for the screen with this quirky romantic-comedy about an introverted cinéphile and the rebellious law-breaker who encourages him to live. The cinéphile is Brendan (Peter McDonald), a school-teacher more interested in his films than his friends. A chance encounter with the unruly Trudy (Flora Montgomery) changes all this; the pair begin an unlikely relationship that continues even after Brendan discovers Trudy’s predilection for late-night burglary. As he embraces the criminal lifestyle Brendan justifies this relationship by imagining it in terms of the films he so dearly loves, allowing director Kieron J. Walsh a liberal sprinkling of film allusions. This approach never becomes derivative and these references amount to a playful cinematic homage, in this intelligent, romantic rollick through modern Dublin.

95 minutes, UK/Ireland, 2000, Colour


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